Burnouts and Ice Cream

[Cruzin]

Picked up one of my dream cars a few years ago. It’s my cousins old 84 Monte ss. In the late 90s he swapped a stock 454 from my dads old truck and it sounded awesome, but couldn’t outrun a mini van. Got the car running and updated a few things like battery, tires, etc just to get it running. I fell into a 90s gen V 454 and decide to just build it then swap it out when I’m done. Goal was about 500hp so I did new rods, 9.5:1 pistons, decent flat tappet cam, 781 heads, headers, intake etc. Super excited for my first big block build. And then it ate the cam on start up.

 

[Cruzin]

Money spent and discouraged, I sold the big block to fund an 5.3 swap. My coworker gave me a 220k mile 5.3 for free that had lost oil pressure from a cracked pan. I used a Holley style oil pan and eBay mounts to get it in the car using the th350 from the 454. I also hand ported the heads and tossed in a lq9 cam I had laying around. It ran great and got 17mpg even without over drive. I used a 95-05 crown Vic crossmember to clear dual exhaust.

 

[Cruzin]

With the car back on the road, I started to do some suspension mods to make it nicer to drive. It’s more of a weekend toy or possibly autocross one day than drag racing. Though it’ll Deffinetly hit the strip some. I’m on a pretty tight budget so that helped pick my parts, but a lot I got for free from buying cars and parting them out, and using the profit for nicer stuff. I did Blazer front brakes
.5” upper and lower ball joints $100
Ws6 hollow sway bar in the front
Umi 2” drop springs from summit scratch and dent for $100
Bilstien Abody shocks (shorter to match springs)
And speedway upper arms
Aligned it to UMIs street spec after and the car finally handles like a sports car instead of a grocery getter. Wasn’t a big fan of the stock seats, so I found some Hyundai Tiburon seats at the junkyard for $50 and made brackets to fit them. Huge improvement. Almost as big as adding a cupholder!

 

[Cruzin]

Next up is the quest for more power, courtesy of eBay. 7875 billet wheel, manifold, intercooler piping, and bov all from ebay. Mishimoto intercooler and vsracing wastegate. Exhaust is all diy, and set up to clear ac cuz it’s way too hot in Alabama. Cant melt the ice cream. I used a walbro 255 when I swapped the car, so I’m limited to about 500hp until I swap in an aeromotive 340lph. I’m running 7psi on 89 octane, and 9 psi on 93 when I want a little more. Service is horrible so I’ll have to upload these pics later this evening.

 

[Supercharged111]

So the Crown Vic cross member was the right width? I can find those all day at the pull and pay.

 

[Cruzin]

If I recall, it needs about 2” trimmed off each side. Simple to do. Just flatten the tube where you cut it and drill a new mounting hole.

So the Crown Vic cross member was the right width? I can find those all day at the pull and pay.

 

[Cruzin]

Turbo pics

 

[Cruzin]

Next up is the stock axle, I got a eaton posi and 28 spline moser axles in a trade. Got it home and realized it was a eaton gov loc. Figured it’s better than nothing, so I removed the lock up paws (that usually cause the case to break) and shimmed the clutches as tight as I could get them and still get the pin in. It’s basically a clutch lsd now, and has been working great for probably 1,500-2,000 miles now.

 

[Cruzin]

Most recently, I’ve been trying to help under hood heat, and maybe high speed aerodynamics by adding some mustang gt hood vents. Dropped my cruising temps about 10-15* but the one over the turbo has started to melt slightly. Probably need a better long term solution. My hood has a ton of dents and needs replaced, so was worth a shot.

 

[scoti]

Cool build. Thanks for sharing the info.